"Cook,.Rick.-.Wizardry.02.-.Compiled" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cook Rick)

"Look, I'll try to get home early tonight, okay?"

"I'll have dinner waiting."

Wiz sighed. "No, you better go ahead and eat. You know how this
works."

"I know," she said softly.



The man in the blue wizard's robe looked around carefully before
stepping into the clearing. A lesser man might have shivered, but
he was of the Mighty and he knew well how to hold his emotions in
check.

There was no sign of life or movement in the open space. The
summer grasses lay pristine and untrampled. Here and there small
red and yellow flowers nodded above them. The trees surrounding
the clearing rustled and sighed as the breeze played through their
tops. The air at ground level was still and smelled of leaves and
sun-warmed grass.

The blue-robed man knew better than to trust ordinary senses. This
was the time and the place appointed for the meeting and his
higher senses told him magic of a lofty order lurked in that glade.

It is for the good of the entire World, he told himself firmly.

Still, if any of his fellow wizards found out . . .

Little enough chance of that. No one kept watch on the Mighty and
with the Dark League defeated, watch of all sorts was lax in the
North.

Even so, he had taken good care that the others would not find out.
He had traveled the Wizard's Way only part of the distance to this
place and come the final league on foot. He left the Capital with a
plausible story about a real errand near here, an errand he had
accomplished. If no one inquired too closely into these few hours,
there was no way they could find out where he had gone or what he
had done. If the other had taken similar precautions, they were
both safe.

In the center of the clearing he stopped, extended his staff and
traced a design in the air. The sigil glowed bright red and then
began to fade imperceptibly toward crimson.

"Welcome magician," a voice hissed out behind him. Whirling, he
saw the person he had come to meet.